For Prospective Master Students

Munich is one of the few places that offers both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s program in Bioinformatics. The Master’s program is designed for applicants who already have a broad foundation across the key areas of bioinformatics.

This differs from places that only offer a Master’s program. There, many students come from other fields (e.g., Computer Science, Statistics, or Biology), and programs often start with a leveling phase before moving on to core Master’s content.

Accordingly, the admission process evaluates how broadly prepared you are across bioinformatics. Applicants with a Bioinformatics Bachelor from a scientific university and an overall grade of 2.5 or better (see TUM’s grade conversion using the Bavarian formula for international transcripts) are admitted directly; all others complete an admission interview.

International Applications

For international students, a separate application to the international office is required. Further information can be found here.

Admission interview

The atmosphere is generally relaxed rather than like a formal exam. A broad background in bioinformatics (biology, computer science, mathematics/statistics) is expected; any gaps are probed specifically. Even if you feel unsure afterward, admission is still possible. The interview is typically conducted by two professors and lasts about 30 minutes.

Typical topics:

Typical opening questions: motivation for the Bioinformatics Master; distinction from “AI”.
Computer science: explain an algorithm you consider elegant (e.g., Boyer-Moore), compare runtimes; basics of complexity; classic bioinformatics algorithms (e.g., alignment).
Biology/application focus: topics from your own projects; handling high‑throughput data (e.g., RNA‑seq).
Math/statistics: explain PCA; basic statistics (e.g., expectation, variance); sometimes optimization.